Olmsted Parkways

Algonquin, Cherokee, Eastern, Northwestern, Southern and Southwestern Parkways

Nearly 15 miles of Olmsted-designed parkways connect people throughout the city to our historic parks. Developed over a thirty-year period, the green parkway corridors were meant to provide pleasurable driving experiences as one traveled throughout the city. Originally designed to link the flagship parks, the six parkways today serve as main thoroughfares. Their character is defined by the width of right-of-ways and the spatial organization of the trees, sidewalks and drives that flank them.

Louisville’s park and parkway system is one of only four completed parkways in the country and the last of the systems that Olmsted designed. The other completed systems are in Buffalo, Rochester and Boston.